Computer applications are sometimes used to create images in a variety of endeavors such as film, video games, simulators, and art. Computer applications can generate still images or video and may do so in 2D and 3D. While some conventional systems create such computer imagery based on data structures defining a virtual word, others transform existing images into new images.
Certain conventional systems transform photographic images into painterly pictures that resemble artistically rendered paintings. With the popularity of smart phones with cameras and an ever increasing use of the Internet, social networks and other media sharing systems, there is an increased desire for photographic manipulation and transformation including transforming photographic images into painterly pictures.
While generating aesthetically pleasing paintings is an age-old artistic struggle, creating painterly pictures based on photographic images using a computer system is a much more modern endeavor. Generating aesthetically pleasing computer generated painterly pictures is difficult due to the inherent artistic and philosophical underpinnings that define what is aesthetically pleasing. Moreover, the inherent processing limits of computers in general, and smart phones in particular (or other limited processing power devices), make generating aesthetically pleasing computer generated painterly pictures in an efficient and timely manner all the more difficult.